Sunday, April 10, 2011

Ben Bernanke: Murderer?

Yup, according to investor Marc Farber. Via theNew York Post, which talks about the effects Ben Bernake's inflationary tactics are already having on the American people:

The Bernanke Fed, of course, maintains that its money-printing spree has resulted in little inflation, other than in stock prices, where Bernanke happily takes credit for the recent rally above 12,000.

To be sure, essays on long-term income and asset disparities can make compelling reading, but they won't hold a candle to the inevitable daily drumbeat of reports about families struggling with $5 dollar a gallon gasoline. Unwittingly Bernanke (and by extension Obama) has positioned himself to take the blame for the inflation that looks to be coming on fast.

Investor Marc Faber put it most bluntly this week, accusing Bernanke of "murdering" the middle class in America by his excessive printing of money in recent years.

He argues that all that money is ending up in the wrong places. As Faber told King World News: "Money printing doesn't go into housing because we have an oversupply of housing, but it goes ... unfortunately into commodities. And this is lifting the cost of living of the median household. Mr. Bernanke is a murderer, he is a murderer of the middle class and the working class."

The question is, are "the inevitable daily drumbeat of reports about families struggling" really inevitable? The media, which flipped out when gas prices went into the $3- range under Bush, has been surprisingly mute about the $4+/gallon gas we are seeing now. Occasionally they will make note of it, but never, ever, do they place the blame on the president. And as we know, last week when Barack Obama mocked a citizen for complaining about the high price of gasoline,the AP and related news sites quickly scrubbed the anecdote from their stories, leaving web searchers to look for cached versions or saved screenshots of the president's bizarre retort.

Thankfully, as Wisconsinhas recently shown, people clearly see through what the media is and is not telling them these days. So I have faith. However, it seems as is Marc Farber does not. More from his recent discussion with Guru Focus:

I think people will be surprised at how high interest rates will eventually go."

"If you print money everything will go up...and now the money printing doesn’t go into housing because we have an oversupply of housing, but it goes into equities and for Mr. Bernanke unfortunately into commodities. And this is lifting the cost of living of the median household, of the typical household in the U.S."

the U.S. has a "crony capitalism" and there could be civil unrest and secession movements in the U.S.

I think we are already seeing the civil unrest, but not from the folks you'd expect. If Farber is right, this will get worse - way, way worse - before it gets any better....